There aren't many things more frustrating than an air conditioning that refuses to run. A hot, muggy home can make your space incredibly uncomfortable, which is why I have always focused on maintaining my air conditioning system. Unfortunately, I still run into problems from time to time and I am sure that all of you do, which is one of the reasons I decided to build this website. Check out these posts for more information about keeping your system working beautifully, even if you aren't naturally good at fixing things. You never know, making the right changes could dramatically improve your summertime experience.
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Demystifying Residential Heating Repair and Maintenance 12 January 2024
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The Importance Hiring Professionals for Heating System Repair 18 December 2023
Keeping Your HVAC System In Great Condition
Thinking About Putting A HEPA Filter In Your Central Air Conditioner? Here's What You'll Need To Know
Herbert Franklin
The quality of your home's indoor air can have a tremendous impact on your overall health. This is especially true if you or a loved one suffers from severe allergies or asthma. If you're grappling with your home's poor indoor air quality, then there's a good chance you've thought about upgrading your current air filter to a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. However, there are a few things you should know before you invest in a HEPA filter.
How HEPA Filtration Works
Although designed to clean indoor air to hospital-grade standards, HEPA filtration works on the same basic principles as most other air filters. However, the difference lies in how thoroughly a typical HEPA filter captures airborne particles and other pollutants. HEPA filters rely on very dense layers of pleated filtration media to trap airborne particles through four main methods (impaction, diffusion, interception, and sieving) as they attempt to pass through the media.
How It Will Affect Your Central Air Conditioner
There's no dispute that a HEPA filter can offer excellent performance when it comes to improving indoor air quality. A typical HEPA filter is usually capable of trapping 99.97 percent of airborne particles as small as 0.3 microns in size. It's no wonder that these filters are commonly used in hospital and laboratory environments where clean air is an absolute necessity.
Unfortunately, adding a HEPA filter to your central air conditioner is no walk in the park. For starters, the sheer denseness of the HEPA filtration media makes it difficult for air to pass through the media in the first place. Most HVAC systems built for HEPA filtration have much stronger air handler fan motors than what you'd normally find in a residential HVAC unit.
In other words, you'll need to upgrade your central air conditioner's existing air handler fan to make a HEPA filter work. This could prove expensive and time-consuming depending on the cost of the needed equipment and local labor costs.
What Alternatives to Consider
A portable HEPA air purifier is a more practical alternative to retrofitting your central air conditioner with a genuine HEPA filter. These units are usually less expensive and are designed to operate quietly. However, most units can only clean one room at a time, leaving those in search of a whole-house solution at a disadvantage.
Another option is to simply upgrade your current air filter to one that offers better performance. If you're still using fiberglass air filters, for example, stepping up to an air filter that uses pleated paper media can offer a tremendous improvement in performance. Certain medium efficiency air filters can have the same overall effectiveness as a genuine HEPA filter, but at a lower cost.
For more information, contact local professionals like Tailor Made Maintenance Inc.
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